How does news customisation affect the way we consume information?

The ability to customise news is a very recent development arising from the digital era, but how exactly does it affect us?

The introduction of news aggregators such as Apple News has brought in a wave of dilute news organisations where the original organisations will get much less credit in terms of remembering which news organisation wrote the article rather than simply phrasing it as “I read this article on Apple News”.

Filter bubbles further dilute these news articles due to personalised timelines and alerts on phones. Upon analysing my Twitter timeline, I came to the realisation that many of the accounts I follow (wether that be news or otherwise) were very against the Trump administration. This brought me to the realisation that many of the things I see on my newsfeed may not only be biased but may also have some inaccuracies in order to further bring the administration down. The lack of opposing views on my Twitter timeline was also something that had never crossed my mind; out of around 10 politically charged tweets, only one or two were of an opposing view and these views were often being mocked.

My timeline has created a very clear echo chamber where my personal views and ideas are being constantly repeated back to me, so I do not leave my comfort zone in terms of my political views on Twitter.